How Hospitals Are Coping With COVID-19

The pandemic has been going on for more than two years now, and hospitals are stretched to the limit. Here are a couple of articles, one from the United States and one from Canada, that describe the experiences of two hospitals. 

First up is Ed Yong's article from The Atlantic about Advocate Trinity Hospital in Chicago.  

To see as many patients as quickly as possible, the hospital’s exhausted staff brought intensive care into the emergency room, using portable oxygen tanks sourced from a local company. They brought emergency services into the waiting room, installing catheters and ordering medical tests for people who couldn’t yet be given a bed. They resuscitated a patient who had had a heart attack while still in an ambulance, because there wasn’t anywhere for them to be off-loaded. But between staff shortages that had been getting steadily worse throughout the pandemic and the sheer deluge of sick people, the team simply couldn’t see everyone quickly enough.

The second article, from the Globe and Mail, describes what things are like in the emergency room at Humber River Hospital, one of the busiest in Ontario.

The Omicron variant has led to more complex medical cases, which in turn leads to longer hospital stays, Casey says.

“If you come in with COVID and all these other concerns and you need to be admitted upstairs, you just stay longer,” Casey says. “You’re often here longer just because it takes longer to care for you.”

Despite the ER being full, the overall number of patients they’re seeing during the fifth wave is actually down, Casey says.

Lavagueur says that is due to fewer patients coming into the emergency department with minor injuries like cut and sprains.

“I think we’ve seen a lot less of those patients because people are afraid to go to emergency, and rightfully so,” he says. “There’s lots of patients with COVID – the present variant is very contagious.”

It’s not just beds that are hard to come by, it’s people to staff them, too.

I am more worried about developing a condition or having an injury that requires a hospital visit than I am about getting COVID-19.